Projects

Our foundation organises projects – online or at specific locations – discussing our value system with new perspectives. All our projects support the funding programme with the goal to raise money for vocational trainings for children in gold mines. The projects are organised and supported by exernal funding and sponsorship.

NEW!!! For Iron I Gave Gold - FE I AU 2019

These recycled gold/iron rings and bracelets can be purchased in support of children from artisan goldmines starting a vocational training in the region of Kahama, Tanzania in January. The rings and bracelets intertwine ordinary iron with precious gold creating a clash of value. Handmade by Antoinette Vonder Muehll, autumn 2019.More images, prices and information on how to purchase the pieces will be displayed shortly.

For Iron I Gave Gold - Amsterdam October/November 2017

The first project under the title of For Iron I Gave Gold took place in 2017, initiated and organised by Antoinette Vonder Muehll, artist and founder of this foundation. She presented For Iron I Gave Gold with the aim to expand our perspectives on value exchange and substitute a materialistic value for a humane one: The full profit from self-made iron rings, sold for the corresponding price in gold, made possible the educational re-integration of 10 children working in artisan gold mines.

Two events took place in Amsterdam to present the rings. The first event was in the setting of the 17th-century mercantile environment of The Merchant House with a talk by Olav Velthuis, Professor at the Department of Sociology of the University of Amsterdam, specialized in economic sociology, sociology of the arts and cultural sociology. Velthuis’s talk complemented Vonder Muehll’s presentation and discussed/explored how contemporary art can reflect critically on economic values.

The second event took place at Prins Claus Fund in the temporary setting of Pages Bookstore Café. It was dedicated to social and humane values and Michele Robecchi, independent curator, artist and editor at Phaïdon London gave an exciting talk and discussed with the public the use of social and humane values in artistic production, reflecting on their possible positive and negative impact. Projects that radically extend, push, cross and change the borders of social values and provoke or discuss new ways of engagement between art and society. From Adrian Piper’s project Probable Trust Registry to Theaster Gates’ Stony Island Bank over Mark Bradford’s Art+ Practice, Christoph Büchel’s Icelandic Pavillion in 2015 and many more, each of these projects provokes or seeks a different social impact within our society.

Each ring comes in a package with a hidden magnet holding the ring in place. The printed photo on textile was taken during the visit in an artisan gold mine near Kahama, Tanzania. The man weighting the extracted gold shows some small nuggets, accumulated through the long and hard labour process of extracting it in the end from mercury.
Please be aware that these iron rings can change colour through ageing.

Some rings are still available. See below a list of available rings. The price of each ring is calculated by its weight in gold with an updated gold price from 20 August 2018 at €33.33/g.

If you are interested in purchasing a ring, please contact us with the size/weight of the ring at: mail@forironigavegold.com.